Introduction

GIGABYTE has one of the largest Intel X99 motherboard fleets in the retail market. Instead of leaving just a few models to satisfy their customers, they tend to tailor their segments to better target their end users' needs. GIGABYTE has come out with G1 Gaming, SOC Overclocking, and Ultra Durable lines. While each type of board is specifically targeted towards gamers, overclockers, or power users, all the boards cross over into each other's domains.

Their overclocking boards carry upgraded audio and their gaming boards carry overclocking features, while their main series carries both. However, as you get deeper into their product structure, certain products offer features that don't exist on other lines, and the X99-Gaming 5P is a perfect example of this.

What makes GIGABYTE's second wave of X99 motherboards special isn't their features, but rather the socket. At X99 launch, ASUS figured out that the Intel CPU had more pads than there were pins on the motherboard, and for an unknown reason (maybe they didn't want to rename the socket to LGA2083), Intel decided to dictate that the LGA2011-V3 socket wouldn't have pins for all the CPU pads. Until recently, only ASUS had the socket with extra pins, but now all X99 motherboard manufacturers have motherboards in the market with the extra pins, and the X99-Gaming 5P is one of them.

The X99-Gaming 5 is basically a refreshed model of the X99-Gaming 5 I reviewed a few months ago, but with a few differences. Follow me as I explore the ins and outs of the X99-Gaming 5P.

Specifications

The specifications of the X99-Gaming 5P are almost identical to that of the X99-Gaming 5 which is being phased out of production. It has a different circuit layout, a wider PCB, a socket selector switch, and enhanced feature positioning compared to its predecessor. What is interesting to note is that GIGABYTE didn't remove anything hardware wise, instead they added.

Pricing

The X99-Gaming 5P is $309.99 on Newegg and Amazon at the time of this review, which is a bit on the higher side for X99 motherboards. It is cheaper than the X99-Gaming G1 WIFI which is $370, but more expensive than the X99-Gaming 5 which is $264.

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